Photos from the Ocean Photographer of the Year awards show the beauty and fragility of underwater wildlife

Clayton Harris caught the moment a humpback whale emerged from the ocean in New South Wales, Australia.

Jake Wilton got lucky with a rare sighting of a leucistic green turtle in Papua New Guinea.

When Laura Leusko took this photo of mobula rays in Mexico, some of the rays started jumping out of the water as the drone approached.

Merche Llobera’s photo captures the circle of life as pelicans, sea lions, mahi-mahi, and sardines seek their next meal in Mexico.

Nataya Chonecadeedumrongkul provided a glimpse inside a hingebeak shrimp colony in the hollow of a barrel sponge in Koh Haa, Thailand.

Shane Gross spotted peppered moray eels searching for food at low tide on D’Arros Island in the Seychelles.

In Papua New Guinea, Noam Kortler photographed a fisherman in a traditional canoe catching sardines.

Tanya Houppermans photographed scientists conducting an ultrasound on a pregnant tiger shark in the Bahamas.

Yue Hongjun captured a freediver swimming with a school of sardines in the Philippines.

Brook Peterson documented the stunning colors of a coral reef in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Edwar Herreño Parra’s photo shows a whale shark swimming under a research ship appropriately named the Sharkwater in Costa Rica.

Henley Spiers photographed a marine biologist working on a coral restoration project in the Maldives.

Matty Smith documented a White’s seahorse swimming in Australia’s Sydney Harbor.

Shane Gross documented the release of a green sea turtle after researchers accidentally caught it while working with sharks in the Seychelles.

In this photo by Tom Shlesinger, corals released egg and sperm bundles into the sea in Israel.